PLAQUEMINE, La. – A truck stop owner has gone to court to keep authorities from shutting down his roadside attraction — a caged 550-pound Siberian Bengal tiger.
Michael Sandlin's lawsuit was filed in state district court on Monday, the day before the deadline set by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for Sandlin to move his tiger, "Tony," from the cage at the Tiger Truck Stop in Gross Tete, west of Baton Rouge.
The suit seeks an injunction that would keep officials from seizing the tiger as Sandlin tries to get changes made to an Iberville Parish ordinance on exotic animals.
A 1993 parish law prohibits an individual from keeping any "wild, exotic, vicious animal or reptile for display or for exhibition purposes."
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